Last week Jimmy Carter fired off letters to Venezuela’s fraudulent President Nicolas Maduro and to Venezuela’s defrauded Presidential candidate Enrique Capriles expressing “grave concern” regarding the political turmoil and bloodshed convulsing their nation. From his pulpit at Emory University’s Carter Center, the former U.S. president calls for “dialogue” among the embattled Venezuelan parties and offers to visit the troubled nation--but not as a formal “mediator.”

It happens after every war. America disarms. And so invites the next
attack, and next war. The same haphazard pattern is emerging now -- even
before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, much as this
administration pretends they are in order to cut the defense budget.

Anyone who claims to be hurt by Obamacare, is apparently a Koch Brother pawn… At least that’s according to Harry Reid, who recently said all Obamacare victims are liars and cheats. Someone should explain to the Nevada Democrat that not everyone is like him.

The Congressional Budget Office’s recent analysis of the Affordable Care Act concludes that it will result in the equivalent of 2.3 million full-time workers leaving the work force to preserve their taxpayer-financed subsidies for health insurance.

To me, a far more revealing and insightful indicator than the unemployment rate, is the payroll to population data released by Gallup each month. As I said at the World MoneyShow in Orlando recently, this is some of the scariest data out there.

The University course was called "Modern Political Economy: Who is Winning the Battle of Ideas?" In the final exam, I asked each student to choose his or her favorite economist. Here was the breakdown:

It was bad enough that the IRS would target O’Donnell with a politically motivated audit, an illegitimate lien and the public release of her private financial information. Now, worst of all, the IRS is successfully thwarting efforts to find and prosecute illegal conduct within the agency, despite the fact that the IRS actions impacted a US Senate race.

Future historians will likely be flummoxed by the moment we're living in. In what amounts to less than a blink of an eye in the history of Western civilization, homosexuality has gone from a diagnosed mental disorder to something to be celebrated -- or else.

What motivates people to demonstrate in central squares, day after day and week after week, against repressive regimes at the risk of life and limb? It's a question raised most recently by events in Ukraine and Venezuela.

Why aren't more people outraged over the Obama administration's war on religious liberty? The administration insists on coercing full compliance with the Obamacare mandates, even when 99.9 percent compliance would fully serve its purposes, and chooses to impose its iron will even against American citizens' God-given and constitutionally and statutorily protected religious freedoms.

The traditional family is dead, so we've been informed. It's been replaced by blended families, cohabitation, single-parent families, and, if the latest scientific controversy regarding mitochondrial DNA pans out, multiple biological parents for a single child.

"A simple recipe for violence: promise a lot, deliver a little. Lead people to believe they will be much better off, but let there be no dramatic improvement." The brilliant political scientist Aaron Wildavsky wrote these words in 1968 while America was engulfed in race riots and anti-war protests.

Whether saber rattling or not, word is out that the White House is "rethinking its options" on intervening in the Syrian war. The collapse of John Kerry's Geneva 2 talks between the rebels and regime, the lengthening casualty lists from barrel-bomb attacks, and a death toll approaching 150,000, are apparently causing second thoughts.

If anyone believes that this nation is truly left of center, they should consider a new poll coming from the usually administration-friendly CBS News. Their polling unit reports that a majority of Americans are disappointed in President Obama and give him lousy ratings for his handling foreign policy and the economy.

A new debate has arisen among prominent conservatives over whether passing an immigration overhaul would be good or bad for Americans, with syndicated columnist George Will weighing in on the pro-reform side and talk-show host Laura Ingraham arguing against.

It is common knowledge that Barack Obama's presidency is becoming increasingly unpopular. But did you know that much of the criticism is now starting to come from his own supporters? It's one thing for Obama to see his job approval polls slumping into the low 40s and his job disapproval scores climbing to 54 percent, according to the latest Gallup Poll surveys. It's quite another thing entirely when his longtime allies and most ardent cheerleaders are criticizing the way he's governed, or not governed, for that matter.

Sandra Korn is a Harvard University undergraduate student and a writer for The Harvard Crimson. In a recent edition of the school’s paper, she argues for abandoning the traditional value of “academic freedom” in favor of what she calls, “academic justice.”

President Vladimir Putin ordered a drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces in western Russia on Wednesday. Officials said the purpose of the exercises is "to check the combat readiness of the armed forces in the western and central military districts as well as several branches of the armed forces."

Last week the First Lady in an attempt to be humorous made the statement that America’s young people are “knuckleheads” showing how the administration views millennials. Young people are fully capable of making their own decisions for their own lives despite what the First Lady thinks.

While everyone is blaming the weather for the anemic economy, there is much more to be considered. The underlying fundamentals for a strong housing market simply aren’t there. A steady market is probably the best we can expect.

The absurdity of comparing reasonably healthy e-cigarettes to a box of tar-packed cancer sticks aside, the Nannycrats’ main point seems to be that electronic alternatives to carcinogen-flavored cigarettes will drive people to smoke the real thing… Because everyone likes standing in 20 degree weather for their addictive habits.

Well, well, well… America might finally be catching on: The Majority of Americans don’t think Mr. Obama’s doing such a swell job in the White House. The biggest surprise, really, is that it took so long. Also: Special audio of a Liberal UCLA student melting down after she lost a vote to boycott Israel…

The GOP's probability of taking over the United States Senate increased dramatically Wednesday with the entry of Rep. Cory Gardner into the race against incumbent Obamacare enthusiast Senator Mark Udall in Colorado.

Yesterday, Dave Camp, the Chairman of the House of Representative’s Ways & Means Committee offered up an astounding 979 page tax reform act. Much of the proposal is individual related; much of the proposal is business related.

The U.S. has now shot so many rhetorical arrows that its quiver of
indignation is empty -- and the world's troublemakers may know it. An
administration that ignores almost all of its own Obamacare deadlines
surely cannot expect others to abide by any timetables it sets abroad.

Wouldn’t it be nice if conservatives could go a week without some group or individuals doing or saying something embarrassing? At least, I think it would be nice, but I have no proof because it hasn’t happened in ages.

In the months since Edward Snowden revealed the nature and extent of the spying that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been perpetrating upon Americans and foreigners, some of the NSA's most troublesome behavior has not been a part of the public debate.

What you think of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) depends on who you believe. Is the freshman senator on an "ego trip," putting himself before country (Dana Milbank, The Washington Post), or is he standing on his principles
(Cruz's conservative supporters)?

The first two months of 2014 are all but done, and there is only a little more than eight months until the midterm elections. The House is projected to remain Republican. In the Senate, the seats up for election are currently split between 21 Democratic seats and 15 Republican seats.

A basic rule for assessing policy is to ask what bad things it makes likely or even possible. Conservatives are fond of citing the law of unintended consequences, which they know can produce negative effects dwarfing the envisioned benefits of a particular measure.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and said that when she had appeared on several news outlets back in September 2012 to state that the attack on an American diplomatic installation in Benghazi was a "spontaneous reaction" to an American-made film that appeared on YouTube she had used "the best information we [the White House] had at the time.

Amidst the freezing temperatures across the country, Spring Break plans are well underway. And, unless your head has been in the sand or the clouds for the last few years, we all know what the typical college, or even high school, spring break entails. So many of our sons and daughters get swept up into wild parties and regrettable decisions. The culture tells them that drinking and "hooking up" are the best ways to make memories and unwind from the stress of school. Instead, many of them end up with broken hearts.

Russia and Crimea appear to be preparing for Crimean secession from Ukraine and affiliation with Russia. If so, this would be the same punishment strategy that Russia used in Georgia. Russian annexation of Crimea in response to a local government request would be easier and easier to defend because of the presence of the Black Sea Fleet.

Meet a Chinese Cyber-Security company... Now, much like when I was first introduced to the company, you’re probably wondering, “based in China?” “Hasn’t that been a source of attacks?”. Well, those were my first thoughts as well.

As Obamacare continues to pull down the healthcare industry (not to mention the economy), it might be worth mentioning that Hillarycare was pretty similar in concept… In fact, the entire Democrat approach to government seems to be focused on repackaging failed ideas.

Over the past several months, I’ve found myself engaged in numerous conversations with the Millennials, also known as members of Generation Y. Normally, it’s the Baby Boomer set with whom I talk politics, sports, and world events, so it’s definitely been a change of pace.

Wed, Feb 26, 2014

CLIVE CROOK, who for many years was a senior editor at The Economist, wrote the other day that he used to think his finest moment at the magazine was in June 2000, when he approved what became one of the most memorable covers in the publication's history — a photo of North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Il, "looking wonderfully absurd" as he waved stiffly to an audience. The headline above the picture: "Greetings, earthlings."

For two centuries the Vikings were the scourge of Europe. But what changed them? Who changed them? It’s really one of the great stories in human history. However, in our highly politically correct age of multiculturalism, the truth is often obscured.

Do you believe a photographer who identifies as homosexual should be punished for refusing to photograph an event celebrating the Westboro Baptist Church’s hateful ideas? Do you believe a Jewish printer should be threatened for declining to promote a conference criticizing Israel? Do you believe a pacifist should be coerced to paint pro-war posters for a rally? If you believe all these are wrong, you should support Arizona’s SB 1062—because that’s what the bill’s about rather than the things you may have heard.

Dave Camp is by all accounts a wonderful guy. But he has orchestrated another pratfall for the Beltway GOP, another display of loser-thinking, elite favor-currying, and desperately bad politics eight months before crucial elections. And he has done so when even party leaders have said his grand plan has zero chance of succeeding.

Normally these columns highlight the fact that something bad has occurred in American politics; in recent years, something usually relating to federal spending, privacy, government surveillance, loss of individual liberty, erosion of Second Amendment rights -- come to think of it, most everything this Administration does.

Bad boy-turned-bellyacher Alec Baldwin threw a 5,000-word, seven-page pity party for himself in the entertainment media he says he abhors. Hey, what better way for a Hollywood narcissist to protest the attention-starved shallowness of celebrity life than to wallow in it to the bitter end?

America's most popular cable news host is upset. "Marijuana use, video games and texting (are) creating major social problems," says Bill O'Reilly. "This is an epidemic that will lead to a weaker nation!"

A fortnight ago, my column focused on how Philadelphia's schoolteachers have joined public-school teachers in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Columbus, New York and Washington in changing student scores on academic achievement tests. Teachers have held grade fixing parties, sometimes wearing rubber gloves to hide fingerprints.

Most of us can remember feeling that someone had done us a great injustice. On those occasions, we want nothing more than to exact revenge. I remember being unfairly treated as a lowly ROTC cadet by one of the sergeants who resented the fact that my brother had been promoted to captain and company commander over him.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has come out against affordable health care for kids. Retail medical clinics -- at drugstores, Walmarts, etc. -- are cropping up across the nation, thanks in part to the expected longer waiting times and out-of-pocket expenses stemming from Obamacare.

How is it that companies can now have more cash than anytime in history, while unemployment remains so high, inflation in many goods so low, and national income grows so anemically? Oh, yeah. Democrats at work. Shhhh.

On December 16th, 1773 colonists stormed Boston Harbor to destroy shipments of tea to protest actions by an out-of-control government that had a stranglehold on the lives and liberty of American colonists.

Attorney General Eric Holder is now arguing that state attorney generals who refuse to defend provisions in their state constitutions restricting marriage to the union of one man and one woman are following in the footsteps of the civil rights movement.

This week, CNN's Piers Morgan announced that "Piers Morgan Live" would be coming to an ignominious end sometime in March. His replacement has not yet been chosen. But his television demise came not a moment too soon for millions of Americans who had tired of his sneering nastiness.

You aren't just missed, absent friend. But remembered and consulted in
memory. ("What would Richard Arnold have to say?") Not since Learned Hand
had an American jurist been described as "the greatest judge never to have
sat on the Supreme Court of the United States."

Proponents of freedom and democracy would love nothing more than for
Ukrainian citizens to fully control their own destiny. However, mere
wishful thinking is no substitute for manifest reality, and semantics
shouldn't replace substance.

Although Macon Baker completed his prison sentence in 2006, the state of Missouri kept him behind bars, repeatedly trying to commit him as a "sexually violent predator." After three juries deadlocked on the question of whether Baker suffers from a "mental abnormality" that makes him "more likely than not" to commit new sex crimes after he is released, a fourth jury on Friday unanimously agreed he does not. In effect, the state retroactively extended Baker's sentence from 10 years to 17.

Since early 2009, the Tea Party as a movement has carved out a substantial place in electoral politics and the general political conversation. Yet for a movement that has garnered so much attention and notoriety, its actual effects have been a bit underwhelming.

President Obama and many of the nation’s top economists entered 2014 predicting a breakout year for the economic recovery. However, troubles in the housing sector indicate more difficulties and several more years of mediocre growth lie ahead.

The last few weeks have been far more than just interesting. We’ve been barraged by a number of winter storms that are taking their toll on January economic data. Given the severity of the winter weather, was any of that really a surprise?

The passage of trade promotion authority (TPA) legislation is of vital importance to the 21st Century American economy. TPA facilitates trade agreements by giving negotiators the tools they need to strike the best deal possible on behalf of American companies, farmers and workers.

Earlier this month, François Hollande, the president of France who calls himself a "socialist," endorsed Say's law, the idea that production is more important than consumption if you want to grow the economy.

Remember when Americans used to hate the idea of government getting involved in people’s lives? With the FCC’s plan to infiltrate news rooms on hold (it’s not going away for good), now might be a good time to kiss the FCC good bye. Economist Mark Skousen also joined the show to talk about the Fed’s intrusion into the economy.

The Financial Times has published a series of insightful articles on the state of Ukraine's economy and its economic overlords. While on the surface the struggle is being described as a fight for freedom and rights, there is a significant incongruity in the overthrow of a government primarily over a suspended economic agreement.

Tue, Feb 25, 2014

How can a Millennial be an intelligent voter one minute and a knucklehead the next? If they are knuckleheads over health care then they were knuckleheads before when they cast a vote for Obama. The First Lady can’t have it both ways.

When President Obama refused to endorse same sex marriage in the 2008 presidential campaign, was he as bigoted as a defender of Jim Crow in 1948, six years before "separate but equal" was struck down by a unanimous Supreme Court?

In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.”

It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels. But there is a sharp difference between upward "mobility," defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen.

I don't have to explain to anyone how television is much more risque, with some programs being downright lewd, than it was decades ago. But I want to tell you about something that can change the course of values in television and movies.

Former House Speaker Tip O'Neill famously said that all politics is local. And it mostly was, in his time: He was first elected to the Massachusetts legislature's lower house in 1936 and became its speaker in 1949, and was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and became its speaker in 1977.

Any freedom-loving person would be outraged at the attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to inject itself into monitoring the practices of print and broadcast media organizations, but the outrage came almost exclusively from conservatives, which is highly instructive.

Though you wouldn't necessarily know it based on news coverage, the United States in the reign of President Barack Obama is enduring the most prolonged period of slow growth and high unemployment since World War II.

After much criticism from conservative quarters, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided, at least for now, to withdraw plans for its proposed study of how media organizations gather and report news.

"Religious Right Cheers a Bill Allowing Refusal to Serve Gays." Thus did the New York Times' headline, leaving no doubt as to who the black hats are, describe the proposed Arizona law to permit businesses, on religious grounds, to deny service to same-sex couples.

It is a happy conceit in the climate change community that true believers are sophisticated, fact-based practitioners of science and that skeptics essentially are a bunch of superstitious nitwits who refuse to respect the -- all bow -- climate change consensus.

Pity the poor Congressional Budget Office, which is routinely identified as a nonpartisan source of information about the federal government's budget and maybe the statistical mysteries of economics in general.

Many people said ho-hum when President Barack Obama threatened to change any law with his pen or phone, and even use that power to personally alter Obamacare and the welfare law, and to "legislate" the Dream Act that Congress refused to pass.

During a recent visit to California, President Obama reconfirmed he is a devout believer in man-caused climate change and policies he proposes show he is willing to risk the wellbeing of our families and harm the economic future of our country in support of an unsettled theory he believes is a settled science.

When stock markets are in a bubble mania (contrary to Mr. Greenspan’s opinion), everyone who’s invested in the market feels just like the top 1% — it’s money that’s made by simply pressing a button, going long, and then it’s off to the country club for drinks and a spot of tennis.

The world is a dangerous place… It’s even more dangerous when America’s foreign policy is an unmitigated disaster. Ambassador John Bolton joined the program to discuss the significance of Ukraine’s protests, and President Obama’s role in the collapse of American global influence.

The problem with freedom, according to the academic left, is that it gets in the way of progressive agendas. So, for the sake of academics who want to thrust upon the rest of society their Utopian vision of “social justice”, freedom must be limited. The Progressive dream lives on at Harvard.

It’s getting harder every day to be a liberal. Having to defend Obamacare is enough to exhaust the hardiest soul. And trying to explain Barack Obama’s foreign policy would give anybody – even a creative globalist like John Kerry – a pounding headache.

The idea that parents have no control over where their children go to school is unthinkable. The public school education system currently in America is exactly that. Children must go to a school based not on choice, but on five numbers-their zip code.

The behavior of the armed forces, through inaction or direct action, determined the overthrow of every Arab Spring government, just as it did for Ukraine. Moving forward, Ukraine could become a model for government overthrows in other European countries under conditions of stress.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the books of Ayn Rand. After escaping from the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Rand became a famous American playwright, philosopher, and novelist.

The framers of our Constitution created the critical tension between the branches of government to help ensure our civil liberties and protect citizens from unchecked tyranny. The growing power of the executive branch over the last three decades has been the subject of much concern from both parties when out of power.

Lawyers for a Democrat in Michigan have claimed that a recent AFP ad is “misleading” and “deceptive”; and therefore could violate broadcaster’s obligation to “protect the public” from such information under FCC regulations. Yep: Michigan Dems are willing to use the FCC to censor a cancer victim. Oh, but it gets better…

The environmentalist movement’s latest target is fracking. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting shale gas from deposits underground. Natural gas releases less CO2 than oil into the environment.

The thing I like about most sports are the rules and how the winner is determined are pretty unambiguous. Score more points, cross the finish line first, jump higher, whatever, and you win. Should there be any foul play or skirting of the rules, there’s an official or referee there to cry foul.

So we have the satisfaction of knowing that at a time when the private sector is struggling to create jobs, Obama will guarantee it will get harder for them rather than easier. Again. And Again. And Again.

Nonetheless, President Barack Obama shrewdly glommed onto the announcement by applauding the retail giant for a decision expected to raise pay for 65,000 employees out of its U.S. workforce of about 90,000.

After journalist Terry Anderson was taken hostage by a terrorist group in Lebanon in 1985, he spent much of six years in tiny cells completely by himself. Trapped in solitude, he found his mind inexorably breaking down.

It is easy to question Hillary Clinton’s competence during her tenure as Secretary of State. U.S. relations with Russia have deteriorated, Iran and North Korea have not been restrained, and Syria has fallen into chaos.

Censorship is on the rise in Serbia. A number of recent government attacks on the central European country’s free press suggest that its upcoming election may be one of its most important to preserve Serbians’ most fundamental rights.

The recent anti-gun protest in front of Visa’s Washington office, was less about expressing rage at Visa, and more about trying to demonize the NRA. The protestors aren’t angry with Visa for extending business offers to a legitimate civil rights organization. They’re upset that the credit card giant doesn’t share their complete hatred for the NRA.